Regulations

The new CMS “Two-Midnight Rule,” which is intended to provide greater clarity regarding when inpatient hospital admissions are generally appropriate for Medicare Part A payment, goes into effect today. However, in order to address widespread concern among hospitals and doctors about the new rule, CMS officials announced last Thursday that government recovery auditors will delay scrutiny of short inpatient stays for 90 days while providers get acclimated to the new policy.

The new CMS “Two-Midnight Rule,” which is intended to provide greater clarity regarding when inpatient hospital admissions are generally appropriate for Medicare Part A payment, goes into effect today.

In a New York Times column, Obamacare’s Other Surprise, Thomas L. Friedman wrote that health data is “creating a new marketplace and platform for innovation – a health care Silicon Valley – that has the potential to create better outcomes at lower costs.” The growth of this new industry is due, in large part, to the federal health care law’s financial incentives for groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers that can prove they’re more efficient and higher in quality than competitors.

In a New York Times column, Obamacare’s Other Surprise, Thomas L. Friedman wrote that health data is “creating a new marketplace and platform for innovation – a health care Silicon Valley – that has the potential to create better outcomes at lower costs.” The growth of this new industry is due, in large part, to the federal health care law’s financial incentives for groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers that can prove they’re more efficient and higher in quality than competitors.

Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had entered into a $25.5 million settlement with Intermountain Health Care, Inc. (Intermountain), Utah’s largest health system with 22 hospitals and more than 4,500 physicians, to resolve self-reported violations of the Stark Law and the False Claims Act.